


A Passing Glance

by QuixoticRobotics



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Gen, adhd persephone, bad futures except the fic is set in the past so. bad. nows. ig, everything i write is so short im sorry, i love writing child versions of characters, space is warped and time is bendable, the ghost rules dont make sense but this is based on a twilight zone episode so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23074606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuixoticRobotics/pseuds/QuixoticRobotics
Summary: Persephone is picking flowers when she witnesses something unusual
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	A Passing Glance

Persephone was doing chores for her mother. Well, she had been doing chores for her mother. But the wildflowers were so lovely, she had to pick just one. And another. And another. And then she realized how lovely they’d look in a chain. The day was so sunny and beautiful, and flower crowns were fun to make and they looked pretty.

Surely her Mama would understand once she saw the beautiful garland of flowers she’d begun making. Maybe she’d give it to Mama, as a gift, or she could make more than one! That was a great idea. And soon Persephone was sitting in the grass, lost in thought, chores having long since escaped her mind.

She was quite pleased with her work as she finished the last flower crown. She then realized that she’d completely lost track of the time. Before she could try and guess how much time she’d spent in the golden afternoon sun, she heard a loud rumbling. 

It couldn’t be thunder, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. She looked up to see what it was, and what she saw was nothing. The plants swayed as though there were wind, but there wasn’t anything at all to prompt this. Then something in the distance began to flicker, like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to exist or not. 

Persephone had already started to climb the fence to investigate, when she noticed something solid and still. It was definitely a person. It looked like a lady. Persephone had never seen anyone dressed so stylishly. 

She’d never thought black clothes could be anything but boring, but this lady proved that wasn’t true at all. She had a flower crown, but the flowers were all black. Were they dead? Why would you wear a crown of dead flowers?

She wasn’t scared exactly, but something felt deeply wrong with this situation. She felt as though she was in the presence of some sort of phantom. A ghostly shadow, probably the kind that you turn into when you aren’t careful and you do something bad.  
  
Persephone could suddenly tell the lady was looking directly at her, a barefoot girl in a feedsack dress. For a moment Persephone wasn’t sure how she was being looked at. Was someone fancier than her looking at her simple clothes and the simple house she lived in and feeling pity? The idea that she or her family deserved pity had never occurred to her before. She didn’t think she liked it. 

She felt an overwhelming sadness. Sadness, the lady was looking at her with sadness. Why was she so unhappy that Persephone could feel it. But before she could get a single answer the rumbling and the flickering stopped. The lady in black was gone.  
  
And, like chores, and flower crowns, and so many other parts of youth, the incident was eventually forgotten.

And unimaginably far into the future, Persephone grimaced as an old black train pulled into the station.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off a Twilight Zone episode called Spur of The Moment. That episode is upsetting and made me think of Persephone the moment i saw it. The actual episode has more horses than this fic.
> 
> I HAVE MY OWN HEADCANONS ABT GOD CHARACTERS AND THEIR BACKSTORIES greek mythology has literally never held my interest but the great depression has. Also i think having gods be like. people. is more interesting to me. Please don't yell at me.
> 
> ALSO I LOVE GHOST STORIES and with its themes of death and cycles and whatnot hadestown feels very suited to explore the idea of ghosts


End file.
